In a typical summer pattern, the Hatchery will experience a mid day lull and the winds there will be less consistent after 1 or 2pm. Exceptions are the afternoon thermals when the westerlies dont kick in until 3 or 4pm and the sunset smoker when Portland begins to cool off in the evenings.
Dougs will usually kick in around 3pm and be pretty steady until dusk. If the wind direction is too Northerly, you may need a meter bigger sail (or bigger board) to get off the beach than youll want in the spray on the OR side.
Anyone sail at Avery or Celilo lately?

3. I got a bigger board (and sail) in 1999. Used the board about twice now and never used the sail, cause theres more to my WSing than planing.

4. Im ON a diet. Its the eat like two pigs and sail it all off diet, and its worked for decades now.

Now heres the REAL question: Whats WMP know that we dont about the Stevenson wind sensor? At my usual site, 20 requires at least a 6.0 and a large (Gorge) board. Is the Stevenson sensor calibrated differently? How about it, Pete . . . what are we missing?

I meant Stevenson / Home Valley / Narrows corridor and I only launch from Stevenson if its blowin easterly. Im not about to give away my treasured sweet spots..... even if I did, theres not many sailors that can get to em and stay around for long. Need to know where to go and when to go there. Gotta have a board that has just enough floatation for a 5.2, a board that can easily cut through the psycho chop to get to the smooth swell. Need a fin that can point, point, point, and then point even more.... fin also needs to perform well on the swell and into the jibes. Need a 4.7-5.2 sail thats gonna get ya through the psycho lulls of the wacky Home Valley launch to get ya to the clean & consistent winds elsewhere. Theres an entire sail size difference in the wind here, so you need to have a sail thats gonna give you that extra range.

FYI, Wednesday I was way OPed sailing my 4.7 @ Home Valley shore-to-shore w/ wonderful swell... nobody else out there!!
Suffice it to say, theres many hidden pockets of wind and swell along this stretch, most are not accessible unless ya do an upwinder / downwinder from the main launch sites (Home Valley or Stevenson). NOT the strongest winds in the Gorge by any means (most of the time), however 9 out of 10 days of sailable westerlies in the Gorge this time of year, this corridor is the most consistent shore-to-shore winds in the Gorge, honest.

As is true with all the Iwindsurf sensors, the sensor only reads the wind where the sensor is located..... if you only sail sensor locations, its a good reading. Personally, I prefer not to sail on top of a pier (Stevenson) or high on top of a bluff (Hatch)or on top of a private home about 100 feet above river level and some 400 feet inland (Dougs) or on top of a grain elevator 75 feet above the water (Maryhill). Perhaps your magical Bonzer boards allow you to sail at these specific locations ??

While these wind sensor readings are very helpful, they are not the truth on what is truly happening out there on the water. The perfect location for wind sensors would be out in the middle of the river on the buoys or the channel markers..... Im sure the Iwindsurf folks would just love to place their sensors on these.

Stevenson winds @ Bobs Beach are generally 5-10 mph lighter and less consistent than places downwind on a west wind. Nobody ever sails these other remote locations downwind because theres no launch site, not even a resting place. So, why do folks always stay so close to the places they launch from? All sorts of reasons:

- not properly equiped to do downwind/ upwind sailing in Gorge conditions

- cant sail very well

- got someone with em who cant sail very well (or doesnt sail at all) and they want to stay close to em

- they wanna show off their sailing ability to friends, crowd and the pretty girls with the skimpy tops.

Perhaps its the lack of a competitive nature in me, I really have no need for sailing around crowds. You, on the other hand, seem to enjoy competition..... but then you sit around and complain about it all the time. Whats THAT all about, eh Mike???

Thats all very nice, but also irrelevant to my question: What kind on wind on the water does one find when the pier is reading 20? And, unasked but vital . . . how is the swell at Stevenson in W winds? I aint driving much out of my way to sail a 5.7 on flat water.

OTOH, Wed brought one of 2005s finest days to Rosey/Arlington, with rock-solid 4.2 shore to shore from noonish until after dark. Many guys were on 3.xs except during the one-hour mid-afternoon 4.7 lull -- perfect time for stoking up for the 5-9 session.

I hear your every word on the western corridor, and dont blame you for unmentioning your unmentionable spots. That entire stretch offers some treasures long overlooked by central corridor snobs.

Glad you were out there and got some on Wednesday, Mike.... so many folks missed out. Wednesday was a 3 course meal for me.... 4.2 Home Valley / Narrows early 8-11 AM sesh, afternooner 3.2 awesome swell sesh @ The Wall, then another absolutely blazing 3.2 evening sesh @ The Wall. Everyone was hurting from smiling so much, except for the folks who missed the sweet early afternooner 1-2:30 sesh (HUGE swell!!!) and then gave up early and went home before the evening 5:30-dark sesh.

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